Earth Moistening Technique and Spiritual Soil Technique

The first split went very smoothly. Two streams of wood spiritual qi quickly transformed into four bursts of explosive spiritual energy.

This type of single-split explosive spiritual energy had very low damage. Even if all four bursts detonated at once, they wouldn't be as potent as a single Fireball Technique, as the Fireball Technique possessed its own inherent power and could also inflict continuous burning damage.

Xu Chunniang's expression remained unchanged. Under her control, the four bursts of explosive spiritual energy split again, becoming eight!

Controlling the eight bursts of explosive spiritual energy, Xu Chunniang still had some energy to spare. She took a deep breath, a look of seriousness on her face. She intended to perform a third split on these eight bursts of explosive spiritual energy simultaneously!

It was unclear how she managed it, but the eight previously stable bursts of explosive spiritual energy were split again, astonishingly becoming sixteen!

"Not good!"

Xu Chunniang's expression shifted slightly. She could feel that these bursts of explosive spiritual energy were too violent. Almost the instant they appeared, a small portion had already broken free from her control!

Almost instinctively, she activated the Spirit Void Steps and retreated without hesitation.

She had barely taken a step back when she heard a "boom." The bursts of explosive spiritual energy detonated one after another, blasting a huge crater into the ground.

Xu Chunniang's face turned pale, her heart pounding rapidly, almost leaping out of her chest.

If she hadn't reacted so quickly just now, she would have likely been killed by the Spirit Blast Technique she had conjured herself!

"The power of the Spirit Blast Technique is truly terrifying. This is only a sixty-four-fold increase in power, and it almost took me out..."

Xu Chunniang shook her head. At least for a while, she wouldn't be thinking about practicing the Spirit Blast Technique. At most, she could barely control twelve bursts of explosive spiritual energy, and four of them had instantly slipped from her grasp. She had gotten lucky this time, but that wouldn't necessarily be the case next time.

After calming herself, Xu Chunniang returned to the cave, took out a jade slip, and prepared to cultivate the Earth Moistening Technique.

"The Earth Moistening Technique is quite similar to the Spiritual Rain Technique; both are purely auxiliary sorceries that can be cast over a large area. The Spiritual Rain Technique irrigates spiritual plants, allowing them to absorb spiritual qi, while the Earth Moistening Technique inputs spiritual qi into the soil where spiritual plants are grown, improving the soil's quality over time.

However, the amount of spiritual qi required for the Spiritual Rain Technique is almost fixed, difficult to reduce but not easy to increase. In contrast, the Earth Moistening Technique has no upper limit on the spiritual qi demand."

Xu Chunniang mused inwardly. When she first discovered this cave, the spiritual qi within was already abundant, about three times that of the outside.

After countless uses of the Spiritual Rain Technique, the spiritual qi in the cave was slightly higher than before, though the change wasn't significant.

Even the Spiritual Rain Technique could slightly increase the spiritual qi in the cave. She wondered what pleasant surprises the Earth Moistening Technique, specifically designed to improve the soil's spiritual qi, would bring her.

The Earth Moistening Technique was extremely easy to pick up. It only required converting spiritual qi into earth-attribute spiritual qi and then channeling it into the soil. However, there were requirements for the speed of spiritual qi channeling.

It couldn't be too fast, otherwise, the soil wouldn't have time to absorb the spiritual qi, leading to waste. It also couldn't be too slow, as that would render it ineffective. Furthermore, the spiritual qi channeling speed had to remain constant throughout the process.

However, Xu Chunniang's mastery of spiritual qi manipulation and control had already reached an extremely proficient level. What was the most difficult part of the Earth Moistening Technique for others became the easiest for her to cultivate.

In just a few days, she had mastered it well.

The only drawback was that the purity of her earth spiritual root was only thirty-five percent, resulting in a lower spiritual qi conversion efficiency.

The Earth Moistening Technique directly affected the land, thus its casting range was extremely large, more than double that of the Spiritual Rain Technique.

In such a large area, even if Xu Chunniang channeled all her spiritual qi, the overall spiritual qi value in the soil didn't change much.

Xu Chunniang was not discouraged and quickly thought of a solution: "Let's try to reduce the casting range of the Earth Moistening Technique."

With her extensive experience in compressing the casting range of the Spiritual Rain Technique, it didn't take long for Xu Chunniang to shrink the range of the Earth Moistening Technique to a very small area, precisely directly beneath where she sat in meditation.

Xu Chunniang closed her eyes and continuously circulated the Earth Moistening Technique, constantly converting the spiritual qi in her body into earth-attribute spiritual qi and slowly channeling it downwards.

After channeling all the spiritual qi from her body, Xu Chunniang sensed the spiritual qi in the soil beneath her. As she had expected, the spiritual qi contained within was subtly higher than the surrounding area!

She opened her eyes, excitement flashing within them. Even after just one full-power casting of the Earth Moistening Technique, the effect was noticeable. With sustained effort over time, it would definitely significantly improve the spiritual qi contained within the soil.

The more spiritual qi there was, the greater the benefits she would receive from cultivating in this location.

Originally, Xu Chunniang was worried about the diminishing effectiveness of the Spiritual Dew and the consequently halved cultivation speed, but with this condensed version of the Earth Moistening Technique, she was confident that her cultivation speed would only increase from before.

"I'll start by modifying this small area."

Xu Chunniang took a deep breath, suppressed her excitement, took out Spiritual Dew to replenish her spiritual qi, and began her grand plan of transformation.

In the following days, Xu Chunniang focused entirely on using the Earth Moistening Technique to modify the land beneath her. It wasn't until one day, no matter how she cast the Earth Moistening Technique, she could no longer increase the spiritual qi content in the soil beneath her, that Xu Chunniang finally stopped.

This process lasted for a full three months.

The land beneath her, after continuous nourishment from the Earth Moistening Technique over these days, had reached an astonishing level of spiritual qi saturation, almost to the point of being called "Spiritual Soil."

The land surrounding the Spiritual Soil, while not as astonishing as the Spiritual Soil itself, also contained an extremely impressive amount of spiritual qi.

More importantly, this spiritual qi had been completely absorbed by the soil and was almost impossible to dissipate.

Looking at the results of her hard work over several months, Xu Chunniang nodded with satisfaction.

"Sharpening the axe does not delay the chopping of wood." Although it took three months to create the Spiritual Soil, considering the benefits it would bring, this time investment was insignificant.

"This condensed version of the Earth Moistening Technique, although its casting range is tens of times smaller than the normal Earth Moistening Technique, it can rapidly increase the spiritual qi in the soil in a short period. Therefore, I shall call it the Spiritual Soil Technique, to distinguish it from the ordinary Earth Moistening Technique."

Xu Chunniang vaguely felt that the Spiritual Soil Technique would be far more helpful to her than the Spiritual Dew Technique.

Currently, although the Spiritual Dew could still aid her cultivation, its effectiveness had halved compared to when she was at the third level of Qi Condensation. Once she reached the fourth level of Qi Condensation, the effectiveness of the Spiritual Dew would be further discounted.

This Spiritual Soil, however, was different. As long as she cultivated on the Spiritual Soil, it would provide benefits to her cultivation. Moreover, if the spiritual qi within the Spiritual Soil became insufficient, she could replenish it at any time.

"Counting the time, seven months of this year have already passed, leaving only five months. Time flies so fast."

Over these seven months, Xu Chunniang had first cultivated the Spirit Concealment Steps and then created the Spiritual Soil, without specifically dedicating time to improving her cultivation. Her cultivation had only progressed slightly from when she first entered the third level of Qi Condensation, barely reaching the early stage of the third level of Qi Condensation.

There was no year-end assessment for new disciples in their second year. However, after the three-year newcomer period, there would be a major examination. There was still nearly a year and a half until that examination.

Thanks to fellow Daoists Malà Gānguō and Fèndòu ba younger for their rewards!